Canada will negotiate international agreements for forest preservation in parallel with emissions reductions. Forest protection will not be traded for reductions in fossil fuel emissions as meeting both targets is urgently required. Furthermore, increasingly stringent international requirements and monitoring will be set in place for forestry operations, that take into account long-term sustainability and the total carbon releases including those from the waste wood left behind and organics in the soil that decay and emit CO2 when forests are cut or burned.
All forest companies will pay a carbon tax to reflect the net loss of carbon storage from their lands, or receive a carbon rebate to reflect net gain of sequestered carbon, based on an independent audit every five years.
All forest companies managing FSC certified lands will be granted a 5-year tax break for those lands upon certification.